We've been receiving feedback that many readers would prefer more introductory and tutorial based content. We want to maintain a balance of skill levels in JSW but are working on entry level alternatives to be unveiled soon. If you want to comment or give feedback / suggestions / ideas on this, let us know through our anonymous feedback form. Thanks! - Peter C.

Featured

Writing Modular Frontend Components in 2013—
As front-end developers, we've been using object constructor and module patterns to keep JavaScript code manageable and encapsulated. But it's about time we had some way of encapsulating portions of the DOM so we don't have naming collisions and unintended interactions. Browser vendors are working on APIs that allow us to create better encapsulated components in the browser.

JavaScript Now The First-Class Language for GNOME App Development— GNOME is a desktop environment popularly used on Linux and its developers recently identified a need to pick a single language to answer the ‘how do I write a GNOME app?’ question. While other languages will still play a key role, GNOME joins Windows 8 in making JavaScript a key language for desktop app development.

JS1K Spring 2013 Competition Launches—
The popular JS1K contest is back for its Spring 2013 outing. The goal is to create a cool JavaScript app or demo that's no larger than 1KB. Prizes and fame await.

No? Front-end developers ARE mobile developers. Don't think so? Prepare to be left behind. BDConf is all about the latest in mobile web design & development... while at the same time sharpens your existing front-end skills. Join us. You'll see. Register by 2/21/2013 and use discount code HTML5 to save $100.

Reading

What are the Benefits of RequireJS?—
A developer asks the question: “I'm having trouble understanding the benefit of RequireJS. Can you help me out?” Answers are given by Ben Alman, Rebecca Murphey, Miller Medeiros and others.

D3.js Meta-Tutorial—
D3.js, the follow-up to Mike Bostock’s impressive and useful Protovis library, is a fantastic tool for building web-based, dynamic, data visualizations consumable by the masses. This blog posts lists resources for getting started.

ECMAScript 6 and Destructuring Assignment—
Destructuring assignment means using patterns to extract parts of an object or array. ECMAScript 6 has this programming language feature and Ariya Hidayat explains how it works.

Meet the New Stack, Same as the Old Stack—
Five years ago, if you asked any client-side developer which library or framework to use, the most likely answer would have been jQuery. Since then, client-side development has become far more complex. Alex Young brings us up to speed with package managers, module systems, template languages, and more.

Managing Events As Relationships, Not Just References—
Derick Bailey explains the idea of managing event handlers as relationships and not simply object references. Correctly modeling the relationship between the observer (event handler) and the subject (event broadcaster) can give us insight into our code and create a more natural representation of how we think about, understand, and observe the real world.

DOM Futures (nee “Promises”)—
Alex Russell is collaborating with Domenic Denicola, Anne van Kesteren, Yehuda Katz and Erik Arvidsson to bring Futures to the DOM. There isn’t a lot of information, yet, but this project is worth knowing of. One of the APIs targeted by it is IndexedDB, which people seem to be highly critical of.

Higgs, a Monitoring JIT for JavaScript—
Maxime Chevalier-Boisvert presents Higgs, a new JIT compiler architecture under development in which monitoring is used to maintain accurate type information at a minimal cost, pushing the limits of dynamic language optimization.

Platform and Open Data Developer at State in London— We're looking for a talented and creative individual to join our team. As well as great front-end web experience (JavaScript, CSS) you're an enthusiast for open data and APIs. You'll be creating tools and services for partners, developers and our core site.

Front End Developer (Amsterdam) - Now hiring 10 Devs— Join the world's #1 accommodation website: Booking.com. We are looking for 10 sharp User Experience experts to join our Front-End team of Designers, Developers & Researchers in Amsterdam. This position is open to worldwide candidates– visa and relocation package incl. Join our international team.

Senior Front-End Developer at The Beans Group, London (UK)— We're looking for a senior front-end developer with experience in HTML5, CSS3, Javascript (both hand-crafted and libraries) to join our team undertaking a range of projects on a full-time basis. Rails, HAML and Mobile Apps are desirable, but not essential.

Peter C here again! I've recently read Effective JavaScript by Mozilla's David Herman and thought it was awesome. It's a quick read at 200 pages but packed with useful principles and primers on important elements of JavaScript's syntax, object model, and idioms. If you want a full review, enjoy this one by Reg Braithwaite or you can buy it on Amazon.com (yes, it's an affiliate link).